Headscarf or school

Two more girls expelled from school for wearing headscarves

Headscarf or school

The small town of Skenderaj has turned into the centre of debate that is related to the use of a headscarf in a public high school. Schools officials are committed not to allow inside their premises students that wear clothes identified with one of the monotheist religions present in Kosovo.

By: Arben Llapashtica (KIJAC-STUDENT)
llapashticaarben@hotmail.com
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Prishtina — She loves learning about important things that can help her in understanding life and offer a possibility to have a decent job in the future. However, her affection for education can be easily out runned by her love for Allah.

Valbona an 18-year-old girl from Skenderaj together with two other girls that have attended the “Hamëz Jashari” high school, say that their wardrobe is being misunderstood by the school administration of this Drenica high school.

The headscarf, considered by Islam an obligation for the Muslim women, is the reason why these girls are not allowed to enter the school facilities. These three girls can easily return to school just if they leave their headscarves home.

This would be unbearable for these young women from Drenica, because God is above everyone and everything.

Valbona and two other girls were not allowed to attend school classes in the last month and now they are expelled from the high school “Hamëz Jashari”.

“For a month I have tried to get in school but access has been denied to me, and just now they have told me that I am expelled me from school, due to lack of attendance”, says Valbona.

The firs day she came to school with a headscarf her teachers informed her through her school friends that she can’t attend school wearing a headscarf.

Fatmire Jashari and Mihane Aliu are two other girls from this school that share the fate of Valbona. These two girls everyday come to school but they are not allowed to attend the classes. The girls are told to wait.

“According to a school regulation that is attached in the school corridor it is said in a few bullet points that religious symbols are not allowed in the school. But the headscarf is not a religious symbol but it is a religious obligation”, says Fatmire.

Fatmire is fully convinced in continuing wearing a headscarf because she knows that there is no law that forbids her to enter the school with a headscarf.
Mihane the third girl that is expelled from school due to her wearing of a headscarf does not show even the smallest desire to renounce of using the headscarf, even if she will still be denied in attending school.

“It was my personal desire to wear a headscarf and I have my family that is supporting me. My father in the beginning was quite confused but now he is convinced that the headscarf is only my will”, Mihane adds.

Fatos and Adelina two youngsters that attend the same school as the three expelled girls say that they do not have a problem with someone who puts a headscarf during school hours.

“We do not have a problem with the use of headscarf, for us Fatmire and other friends still remain the same with or without the scarf”, says Adelina.

Fatos another student from “Hamëz Jashari” high school says that he is against expelling his friends from school just because they wear headscarves.
“We have boycotted school because of our friends but we were pressured by our teachers to return to classes”, says Fatos a high school student from Skenderaj

The Kosovo Ombudsperson reacted on the issue of expellment of these three girls from regular school. The acting Kosovo Ombudsperson lawyer Hilmi Jashari states that students should not be denied in using religious symbols such as headscarves during school hours.

“Every executive order that denies the use of a headscarf and of other symbols in schools is against the rule of law and the individual right to exercise their religion because the Kosovo Parliament until now has not approved a law like this, says Jashari.

Agim Veliu the Minister of Education, Science and Technology is not as much interested in being part of the public discussion about the case of the three girls expelled from a Skenderaj high school because it considers the use of headscarves as a religious propaganda.

“Everything is regulated through the Law of Higher Education”, says Veliu ignoring the journalists questions in relation of the use of headscarves in public schools.

The Law on Higher Education says it clearly under point 13 that the adult students have the right to be treated equally without any discrimination on religious, ethnic, political and religious beliefs”.

Reacting on the support that minister Agim Veliu has given to the “Hamëz Jashari” high school administration, member of Kosovo Parliament Ferid Agani from Partia e Drejtësisë has asked from the minister to present a report to the Parliament. While Sylejman Qerkezi the leader of Partia e Drejtësisë says that, the Law on primary and secondary education allows the use of headscarves in schools and according to him the practice of banning the headscarves has to be stopped.

“The law on primary and secondary education allows the use of headscarves. The minister of education has either to ban with a law the use of headscarves or to stop acting like this”, he says.

The deputy director of the high school “Hamëz Jashari” in Skenderaj interprets the law differently. He says that the act undertaken by the school administration is not against Islam but it’s the law that forbids the use of headscarf in school.

“This school is a secular one, state and public. With the request made by parents and students now we have the school uniform, and according to point 7 of the school regulation there is not allowed any other uniform then the one with the name of the school”, says he while making ad inference between secular and religious schools

Professor John Voll, from University of Georgetown in Washington, who has an expertise to be envied in Muslim — Christian relations, says that the headscarf is considered as diversity and is protected by law. He says that in Kosovo as well, there should exist opportunity to choose:

“I would suggest to the authorities to have in mind that for every believer is important to protect their right, so they can exercise their religion as they want it. How important is that men have the right to carry a cross or to put a headscarf. In long term point of view this is important for a society as Kosovo is”, says Voll.

Debates about the use of a headscarf have existed also in the past. Not as long ago a woman who was working as a teacher has been fired from the school where she has been working due to the fact that she had worn a headscarf. This case caused a lot of debate in the media.

Similar debates about the use of headscarves have been ongoing also on Turkey and France. But in Skenderaj the three girls who are expelled from don’t have second thoughts to take of their headscarves and continue school.